Casey says goodbye, but is it final?
David McCormick became a U.S. senator on Friday, the first day of business for the 119th Congress. A Republican, McCormick squeezed out a victory over the Democrat, Robert P. Casey Jr., the longtime incumbent whose political career goes back decades.
Casey’s father, the “real” Bob Casey, was a popular, two-term governor, and the son had his eyes on that office when, as auditor general, he was defeated in the 2002 Democratic primary by future governor Ed Rendell.
Sen. Arlen Specter was “snarlin Arlen.” Sen. Rick Santorum had a peevish side. Sen. John Heinz was terrible (it was said) to work for. Sen. Bob Casey, like his father before him, is a soft-spoken, almost taciturn fellow.
Bob junior is “boyish” Bob, his graying wisps of hair notwithstanding. It’s hard to imagine an “angry” Bob Casey. It’s not his nature.
Also hard to imagine is Casey on the sidelines of politics. At 65, he might think he has something left in the tank. That’s what I took away from a pre-holiday visit he made to Washington County, and a few days later, when Casey addressed the Senate, ostensibly for the final time.
As reported by Brad Hundt, Casey focused at Scenery Hill on the expansion of internet service, now and in the future. He recalled hearing from an elected official in 2016, well before the COVID-19 pandemic, about students having trouble doing their homework because of slow internet connections.
“In one minute, it all made sense to me,” Casey said. “If a child can’t do their homework, it’s really hard for that child. It’s really hard for that family. It’s really hard for the classroom she’s in, and the school she’s in.”
Casey tied all this to global geo-economic and political concerns, including our competition with the Chinese, and to efforts to grow the economy.
“If she can’t learn, we can’t have the GDP we want,” the senator said, deploying imagery better suited to a D.C. think tank than to an audience in rural Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Casey’s chance to get something done occurred five years later, in the first months of the Biden administration. In March 2021, President Biden signed the massive – and I mean massive – American Rescue Plan, which injected $1.9 trillion into the U.S. economy.
In addition to sending $1,400 checks to Americans strapped by the pandemic and dramatically expanding the child tax credit, the Rescue Plan poured $90 billion into closing the nation’s “digital divide” between underserved and unserved internet communities and the rest of the country.
The administration’s goal, established by the Rescue Plan, is to extend high-speed service to every American household by 2030. As of September 2024, service had been expanded to 2.4 million previously unserved homes and small businesses, according to the Commerce Department.
What the Trump administration has in mind for the future of the expansion project remains uncertain.
“I’m damn proud I cast the right vote in March 2021,” Casey told the Scenery Hill gathering, particularly because of what it means for connectivity.
Casey’s remarks on the Senate floor six days before Christmas were of a similar nature. He reviewed legislation he worked on through the years, including measures dealing with the disabled, pregnant women in the workplace, and campus sexual violence.
Casey also mentioned the number of schoolchildren eligible for free school meals, thanks to his efforts. Some 20 million students now qualify, 10 times the number eligible in 2010, the senator said.
In addition, Casey looked ahead to the importance of dealing with changes to the climate, the challenges of gun violence and the opioid crisis, lowering inflation, and to supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia, among other things.
He quoted Martin Luther King Jr. on the imperative of service. “I will continue to do my part,” he said, “as a citizen and as a Pennsylvanian.”
The now former senator didn’t necessarily sound like someone riding off into the sunset, though his electoral options are severely restricted. Incumbent Democrats occupy the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg and Pennsylvania’s other seat in the Senate.
Defeated incumbents are not frequently hot political commodities. In this case, we shall see.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.